Unfaithful, The

The wages of sin are deceit, heartbreak and possibly murder in The Unfaithful, a thriller about a wife who has an affair while her GI husband is off fighting in the Pacific. Then, after the war and happily reunited with her husband, she stabs the castoff lover in what may or may not be a case of self-defense. Ann Sheridan gives one of her finest performances -- variously calculating, terrified and remorseful -- as a woman desperate to keep her past a secret and her marriage whole. As her attorney, Lew Ayres turns the film's courtroom scenes into riveting drama. Is the wife a good woman who made a single mistake? Or is she a cold-hearted seductress capable of murder? The Unfaithful lets you decide.

• film
• noir